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Tuesday, 7 April 2015

Ensuring the Future of the National Film & Sound Archive - Tony Buckley's Proposal to deal with urgent Issues

The future of the National Film & Sound
Archive has been a subject of low-simmering public debate for the best part of
twelve months. Producer, editor and conservator Tony Buckley has, for a
considerable period and long before the current rankling commenced,
independently developed his own ideas about the institution and its management.
He has publicly expressed his thoughts on a number of occasions, including in a
speech posted here.

For some time now Tony has been preparing an
agenda of issues which he believes the Federal Government and the NFSA itself hves to address in order to ensure the institution's future. I have posted the full version of the paper on the Film
Alert website but to give you some guidance on the issues it addresses and
the recommendations it makes a shorter summary of them are set out below.

The
paper makes plain that the situation in which the NFSA finds itself is the result
of the failure of successive governments which have allowed the deterioration
of the condition of the Archive to occur in a way they have never allowed for
the National Gallery and the National Library.
It could be argued that the Archive, as the repository of the Nation’s
motion picture heritage, will eventually outweigh those other national
institutions in national importance.

The issues identified and recommendations
include:

A
special grant be requested of Government for the priority digitisation of the
two elements of the Cinesound bequest, followed by
the provision of sufficient funds for all necessary digitisation of the entire
collection.

Funds be provided for the urgent acquisition of state of the art
equipment

Appointment of a librarian and re-opening of the NFSA Library

Closure
of the lending library of prints and transition to making the collection
available on DVDs, USBs and DCPs.

Revitalising the
NFSA’s Retail Division

Increasing
the budget and activity of the Oral History Program.

Appointment
of curators dedicated to lead international and domestic searches for lost
Australian films and sound recordings.

A proposal be prepared
as a matter of urgency for a purpose-built facility in Sydney to enable full
public access to the NFSA collection.
The NFSA Board should seek a commitment from Government, the Opposition
and industry to support the building of a new Archive by 2025, the building
should be of a scale and significance as would take its place alongside other
national cultural institutions, including the National Maritime Museum
at Darling Harbour, Sydney, The National Art Gallery and National Museums in
Canberra.

The Chair and Board to include a greater representation of practitioners
from the top echelon of radio, sound,
television and film industries, led by a Chair from within the entertainment
industry with considerable and respected business management experience.

Where to Now?

Sue
Milliken and I have signed on to Tony’s agenda.The paper is thus signed by the self-designated Archive Action Committee! It is an expansive and
visionary prospect. We are seeking public support and propose to start a list
of signatories who wish to see this agenda explored as a matter of urgency.

The
names of anybody who wants to show their public support will be published as a
separate item of the Film Alert
blog and will updated as each name, if any, is received. Think about
whether you would like to once again put your name out as a signatory seeking
urgent action, especially from Government in the form of urgent additional
funding, to address the NFSA’s difficulties.

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About Me

This is a blog devoted to things of interest to cinephiles. The subjects are randomly selected in the manner of a diary and are somewhat oriented to Sydney, Australia. In the past I used to send out these entries via regular emails but this has trailed off and its best to check here for anything new.You can contact me direct via email at filmalert101@gmail.com